President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the immediate arrest and prosecution of individuals found to have been involved in alleged irregularities surrounding the procurement of arms and military equipment.
The directive followed the submission of an interim report by the 13-member committee set up on August 31, 2015, to audit arms and equipment procurement in the Armed Forces and the Defence sector from 2007 to date.
Details of the committee’s findings were released to the public by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina.
According to the report, the committee examined financial interventions made by various organisations to the Office of the National Security Adviser, Defence Headquarters, Army Headquarters, Naval Headquarters and Nigerian Air Force Headquarters, in both local and foreign currencies.
So far, the committee said it had identified extra-budgetary interventions totalling N643,817,955,885.18, while the foreign currency component stood at $2,193,815,000.83.
The figures, according to the report, did not include grants from state governments or funds collected by the Department of State Services and the Police.
The committee observed that despite the substantial financial interventions, only a relatively small portion of the funds appeared to have been used to support defence procurement.
It further reported that out of 513 contracts awarded at a combined value of $8,356,525,184.32, N2,189,265,724,404.55 and €54,000, a total of 53 were classified as failed contracts.
The failed contracts were said to be worth $2,378,939,066.27 and N13,729,342,329.87 respectively.
According to the committee, the foreign currency component of the failed contracts was more than twice the $1 billion loan approved by the National Assembly for the fight against insurgency in the North-East.
The report also alleged that payments amounting to N3.85 billion were made to a single company by the former National Security Adviser without documented evidence of contractual agreements or proof of fulfilment of tax obligations to the Federal Government.
Further findings focused on contracts allegedly awarded between March 2012 and March 2015 by the then NSA, Lt. Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd.).
The committee said it identified contracts valued at N2,219,188,609.50, $1,671,742,613.58 and €9,905,477 which it described as fictitious or unexecuted.
According to the report, the contracts were purportedly for the purchase of four Alpha Jets, 12 helicopters, bombs and ammunition. However, the committee said the equipment was not supplied to the Nigerian Air Force and could not be found in its inventory.
The report further stated that two companies alone received contracts valued at N350 million, $1,661,670,469.71 and €9,905,477, despite what the committee described as previous instances of non-performance.
Another finding concerned alleged instructions by the former NSA to the Central Bank of Nigeria to transfer $132,050,486.97 and €9,905,473.55 to accounts linked to Societe D’Equipments Internationaux in West Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The committee said it could not establish the purpose of the transactions because there were no contract documents to explain the payments.
The findings have raised serious concerns coming against the background of the military’s ongoing battle with insurgency in the North-East, where troops had repeatedly faced shortages of equipment and ammunition.
The committee said the situation was particularly disturbing because the financial interventions were made during a period when the country’s security forces were in urgent need of military equipment.
Following the interim findings, President Buhari directed the relevant security and law-enforcement agencies to arrest and prosecute individuals found culpable in the alleged financial irregularities.
The President’s directive signals the beginning of a wider investigation into the management of funds meant for military procurement and the circumstances surrounding contracts awarded under previous administrations.
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